Goyne; Surprise; Bear Mine, Homer Mining District, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Goyne; Surprise; Bear Mine	Mine
Homer Mining District	Mining District
Kenai Peninsula Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

This mine is within the Kenai Fjords National Park and is closed to mineral entry.
Location: The Goyne mine is on the west shore of Surprise Bay about 0.6 miles south of the mouth of Palisade Lagoon. A wave-demolished cabin and a tailing dump is all that remains at the mill and campsite. Exploration and development work consisted of two adits, at approximately 25 and 135 feet above sea level, and numerous pits and trenches which trace series of mineralized quartz veins from sea level to the top the ridge. This is Cobb's (1972, MF-397) location 26 and Richter's (1970) location 8. Cobb (1979, OFR 80-87) summarized the relevant references under the name Goyne.
Geology: The country rock near the lower portal is black slate of the Cretaceous Valdez Group that has been intruded by a Tertiary granodioritic dike (Richter,1970). The dike is very irregular and segmented but overall has a east-west trend and dips 65 to 85S. In hand sample, the dike is a light gray color with a medium equigranular texture. No primary mafic minerals were observed, but abundant chlorite (10 percent volume) occurs in poorly defined patches and scattered interstitial fillings. Veinlets of quartz, zoisite, and potassium feldspar are abundant throughout the dike (Richter, 1970). The gold mineralization occurs in quartz veins which in places contain abundant arsenopyrite, with galena and pyrite. Gold mineralization seems to be more associated with galena than arsenopyrite (Pilgrim, 1931). Select high grade samples, taken from the surface at an elevation of about 600 feet, contained 158.16 ounces of gold and 58.92 ounces of silver per ton, and 0.72 percent tellurium as sylvanite (Smith, 1936, p. 31). The veins appear to be confined to the dike or local areas along dike-slate contacts. When veins pass into the slate, they pinch out or split into thin quartz stringers that pinch out. In the underground workings, the veins are exposed on both levels and along a raise connecting the two levels. The main vein in the upper adit, is about one-foot-wide and is exposed for 70 feet along strike. It strikes N85E and dips 75S. In the lower adit, the same vein is exposed for 100 feet and has a maximum width of 1.0 foot. Two random channel samples taken across the vein indicate a a fairly high gold content; 200 ppm gold across 0.9 foot in the upper adit and 40 ppm gold across one foot in the lower adit (Richter, 1970).
Workings: Two tunnels were driven, and numerous trenches and prospect pits were dug on the property prior to 1934 (Pilgrim, 1933). Since that time the mine appears to have lain idle. The lower tunnel is at an elevation of 25 feet and the upper tunnel at 135 feet elevation. The tunnels are connected by a raise from which a total of 6,710 pounds of hand selected ore was produced. Samples from the lower working contained four ppm gold from a one foot vein and a sample from the stoped vein contained 200 ppm gold (Richter, 1970). A total of 600 feet of workings have been dug on the property.
Age: Tertiary; Boden and others (1991) report other veins in the district are about 55 m.y. old.
Alteration: Borden and others (1991) reported carbonization, sulfidization, sericitization, and silicification of the wall rock adjacent to the veins.
Production: In 1931, 6,710 pounds of hand selected ore that was shipped to a smelter in Tacoma, Washington produced 4.10 ounces of gold and 1.72 ounces of silver per ton (Pilgrim, 1933).
Reserves: None.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au; (Minor) - Pb, Te?
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Low-sulfide, Au-quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	SV004

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References